"Straith letter" to George Adamski, December 1957

In 1957 George Adamski, a prominent self-claimed UFO contactee, received a letter signed by "R.E. Straith," who purposted to be from the U.S. State Department's "Cultural Exchange Committee." The letter claimed that federal officials knew of Adamski speaking to extraterrestrials in 1952, and highly placed U.S. officials planned to corroborate it publicly. Adamski used the letter to support his claims.  Many years later, in 1985, ufologist James W. Moseley revealed he and friend Gray Barker had written the letter as a prank. Moseley also revealed that the FBI had investigated the letter, found it to be a hoax, and notified Adamski, asking him to stop using the letter as evidence, but he refused.